Rare masterpiece by Italian maestro Giotto copy emerges from Transylvanian church ruins

The fragments found deep in the Romanian region are part of a 14th-century fresco reproduction of Giotto's "Navicella" mosaic that used to adorn St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. By: Peter Murphy

BUDAPEST (AFP).- A jewel among the wild grass? A Hungarian historian is convinced that patches of fresco in a Transylvanian church ruin are a rare medieval copy of a legendary masterpiece by Italian maestro Giotto. The fragments found deep in the Romanian region are part of a 14th-century fresco reproduction of Giotto's "Navicella" mosaic that used to adorn St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Szilard Papp told AFP in Budapest last week. Only three other 14th-century copies of the work, depicting Christ walking on water before apostles in a boat, are known to exist, in Strasbourg in France and in Florence and Pistoia in Italy. "This is definitely the fourth," said Papp of the Transylvanian fresco, in the village of Jelna, 430 kilometres (270 miles) northwest of the Romanian capital Bucharest. Giotto made the vast mosaic -- measuring roughly 10 by 14 metres (33 by 45 feet) and considered a marvel of medieval art -- for the basilica's atrium around 1300. It was later destroyed during the 17th century reconstruction of the basilica. "It is astonishing that such a major work was reproduced in a small village church on the periphery of western Christianity at that time, so far from Rome," said Papp, who works for the Budapest-based Istvan Moller Foundation, a heritage protection body. "Who painted the fresco and how will likely forever remain a mystery," he added. Papp's theory is that probably a sketch of the mosaic somehow made its way from Rome via painters workshops to Transylvania where a local artist painted the copy in the church.

During a trip to Jelna in 2014, he first saw the fragments of colour on the wall in the mostly roofless church, abandoned since its congregation of ethnic-German Lutheran Protestants died out in 1976. Last year he examined photographs from 2003 of the fresco in a less degraded state, but it was not until he later came across fragments on bits of plaster stored in a museum warehouse in nearby Bistrita that his pulse quickened. Decaying churches Poring over academic literature on Giotto's mosaic, Papp finally arranged the pieces of the puzzle in January. "When I put together all the elements -- the sail, mast, apostles, the Christ figure, the heads with their particular gestures -- visible separately on the wall, in the photos, and on the museum fragments, I realised it must be the 'Navicella'," he told AFP. Remarkably, it is not "less faithful" to the original than the other three copies, he said. "There is a lot (in the findings) that makes sense", Ciprian Firea, a historian in the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca's Institute of Archaeology and Art History, told AFP. The church was built in the second half of the 14th century by ethnic Germans, thousands of whom settled in Transylvania, then part of Hungary, after an invitation by a 12th-century Hungarian king. After the 16th century Reformation frescoes were whitewashed or plastered over by Protestant converts from Catholicism who frowned upon imagery inside churches. Barely altered since the Middle Ages, decaying churches in Transylvania have revealed many medieval frescoes since the fall of communism in Romania in 1989. The church in Jelna could totally collapse within one year unless urgent repairs are carried out, experts warned at a seminar in Bistrita Thursday.

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Pissarro painting looted by Nazis and owned by the University of Oklahoma to return to France

Pissarro completed "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" in 1886.

WASHINGTON (AFP).- A painting by Camille Pissarro will return to a Jewish family in France whose art collection was looted by the Nazis in 1941, a lawyer who led the negotiations said. The University of Oklahoma will give back "La bergere rentrant des moutons" -- or "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" -- to Holocaust survivor Leone Meyer, her New York lawyer Pierre Ciric told AFP about the restitution agreement signed Monday. Meyer is the adoptive daughter of late businessman Raoul Meyer, who was co-owner of the French retail company that owns the upscale department store chain Galeries Lafayette. He deposited his art collection in a vault at the bank Credit Commercial de France in 1940 before the Nazis seized it during their occupation of France. Pissarro completed "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" in 1886.

The oil-on-canvas painting -- valued in its last appraisal at $1.5 million -- was later acquired by a Swiss merchant and a New York gallery before it was bought by collectors Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer. They bequeathed it to the University of Oklahoma in 2000. Under the settlement's terms, the painting will be displayed for five years in France before it will move on a rotating basis between the University of Oklahoma's Fred Jones Museum and a French museum. The deal also requires Meyer to donate the painting to a French art institution during her lifetime or in her will. "The priority was for public display," Ciric said about the negotiations, which began after Meyer filed suit in May 2013. The university drew criticism during the process for objecting to returning the work based on procedural rules and the statute of limitations.

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Modern 'Indiana Jones' on mission to help find undiscovered treasures and defend wonders

'Real-world Indiana Jones' Sarah Parcak unveils a wish to enlist people around the world to help save antiquities. GLENN CHAPMAN / AFP.

VANCOUVER (AFP).- A technology-wielding archeologist billed as a real-world "Indiana Jones" called Tuesday for an online platform that entices just about anyone to help find undiscovered treasures and defend archeological wonders. Sarah Parcak envisions a 21st century army of citizen scientists to battle the looting and destruction of the world's antiquities. And now, thanks to winning this year's coveted TED Prize, her wish may just come true. "We are at a tipping point with our cultural heritage," Parcak told reporters. "We are losing the battle against looters. If we don't do something in the next couple of years, it will be gone." The TED Prize provides a million dollars to kickstart a big vision and opens a door to call on the nonprofit organization's innovative, influential and ingenious community of "tedsters" for help. Parcak wants people around the world to become explorers, detecting antiquities looting faster than currently possible and pointing archeologists to promising spots on the planet. "The only way we are going to be able to get ahead of the looters and protect sites is to engage the world and make them part of what we do as archeologists," Parcak said. Her exploration includes a game with digital "cards" that people can quickly flip through to scrutinize satellite imagery for tombs, pyramids, looting "pits" and other points of potential interest to archeologists. Only tiny sections of imagery will be shown, along with broad location data such as what country is involved. "The last thing we want is for looters to log-in and help find sites to loot," Parcak said. "The most exciting part is, it will be a game." Parcak condemned destruction of antiquities by the likes of violent extremists from the Islamic State group and saw looting done by the desperately poor as "heartbreaking."

Digital digs Archeologists will follow up on sites pinpointed by the "crowd," paving the way for protection from governments or law enforcement agencies. Virtual explorers will visit digs using social media tools such as Periscope, Instagram and Google+. "The world is going to get to engage with archeology in a way that has not been done before at this scale," Parcak said. Her team is consulting with citizen scientists and game experts on the project. "We don't know what getting people excited about discovery will do," Parcak said. "We know this will allow the world to become archeological activists as well as discoverers." Enlisting people in countries around the world is vital in the fight against intentional destruction of antiquities and looting that is "spiraling out of control," she maintained. "We can't stop the looting, and we can't change the mindset of people like ISIL, but we can become advocates to stem the antiquities trade," Parcak said. She hopes to roll the platform out this year. "Sarah is the ultimate 21st century explorer," said TED Prize director Anna Verghese. "We find ourselves at a critical moment in time when we can empower and ignite an army of citizen scientists to find, share and protect our heritage." Spying the past from space Parcak was introduced to aerial photography through her grandfather's use of it in forestry work. She was studying Egyptology at Yale when she began exploring the potential for using more modern tools to apply her grandfather's approach to archeology. Parcak was pursuing an advanced degree at Cambridge University when she created a technique for processing infrared imagery from satellites that helped her detect undiscovered archeological sites in Egypt. She has since turned to mapping looting. Her work has caused some to refer to Parcak as a real-world version of the Indiana Jones character made famous in films starring Harrison Ford.

Parcak is a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she founded the Laboratory for Global Observation. She has won attention for her work satellite mapping Egypt and uncovering hidden pyramids, tombs and settlements. The annual TED Prize has grown from $100,000 to a million dollars since it was first awarded in the year 2005, to U2 band leader Bono and his vision of fighting poverty and disease. The TED community includes scientists, celebrities, politicians, artists, and entrepreneurs. Since its inception in 1984, the gathering has grown into a global forum for "ideas worth spreading." TED has won a worldwide following for trademark "talks" during which accomplished speakers deliver thought-sparking presentations. Videos of talks are available for free online at ted.com.

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Spain agrees to extradite $33 mn art fraud suspect Jesus Angel Bergantinos Diaz to US

Untitled,1956 attributed to Mark Rothko.

MADRID (AFP).- Spain's top criminal court on Tuesday agreed to extradite to the United States a man suspected of helping to perpetrate one of the world's biggest art frauds over two decades. Jesus Angel Bergantinos Diaz was allegedly involved in the sale of fake masterpieces purporting to be by artists like Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock -- works that were actually done by a Chinese painter he met on a Manhattan street corner. US investigators say the Spaniard, his brother Jose Carlos -- deemed a leading figure in the scam -- and others sold the fake works of art to galleries in New York over two decades, grossing some $33 million (29.6 million euros) in the process. They then laundered the money and hid it overseas. Spain's National Court said Bergantinos, 67, was wanted by US authorities for money-laundering and fraud. He was arrested in April 2014 in the northwestern Spanish city of Lugo, while his brother Jose Carlos was detained that same month at a luxury hotel in the southern city of Seville. Both refused voluntary extradition and were ordered to surrender their passports and remain in Spain pending extradition hearings.

US prosecutors said Jose Carlos would buy up canvases of old paintings at flea markets and stain newer canvases with tea bags, which he gave to Pei-Shen Qian, the Chinese painter, to create what have been dubbed "the Fake Works." Among the bogus paintings were some purportedly by Rothko, Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn and Robert Motherwell. In September 2013, Jose Carlos' girlfriend, Mexican-US art dealer Glafira Rosales, pleaded guilty before a US federal judge to selling counterfeit paintings to two of New York's top galleries. Qian, meanwhile, is suspected of having fled to China. The National Court will now have to decide whether or not to extradite Jose Carlos.

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Italy pits 60-strong task force of art detectives and restorers against world's heritage looters

The hope, UNESCO director Irina Bokova said Tuesday, was that other countries would follow Rome's example and join the heritage fight.

ROME (AFP).- Italy unveiled a 60-strong task force of art detectives and restorers on Tuesday, ready to protect the world's crisis-hit heritage sites for UNESCO in a cultural version of the UN's famous Blue Helmets. The task force, dubbed "cultural peacekeepers", will be dispatched -- when logistically possible -- to assess the damage to globally-prized monuments or works in the wake of conflicts, earthquakes, floods or other disasters. The main aim is to stop the looting and selling of heritage by militants to fund "terrorist activities", UNESCO said. The task force will "assess risk and quantify damage done to cultural heritage sites, develop action plans and urgent measures, provide technical supervision and training for local national staff," the Italian ministry said in a statement. It will also help transfer movable objects to safety "and strengthen the fight against looting and illegal trafficking of cultural property," the ministry said.

Thirty police art detectives and 30 archaeologists, restorers and art historians "are already operational and ready to go where UNESCO sends them," said Culture Minister Dario Franceschini. Italy's art police have an international reputation for tracking down and recovering stolen works. The hope, UNESCO director Irina Bokova said Tuesday, was that other countries would follow Rome's example and join the heritage fight. The idea for an Italian, cultural version of the United Nations peacekeepers -- known by their distinctive blue helmets -- was voted in by the UN after the destruction of sites including in Syria's Palmyra by the Islamic State group. IS seized control of Palmyra in May and has realised international fears by destroying some of the most prized sites in the UNESCO World Heritage listed ancient city. The militants have carried out a sustained campaign of destruction against heritage sites in areas under their control in Syria and Iraq, including the important Iraqi sites of Hatra, Nimrud and Khorsabad, the ancient Assyrian capital. Islamist militants are also accused of being behind attacks on 10 religious and historic monuments in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Timbuktu in Mali.

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Russia rejects nomination of jailed artist Pyotr Pavlensky for state art prize

A file picture taken November 10, 2015 shows Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, accused of vandalism after torching the doors to the headquarters of the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB, the previous day, standing inside a defendants' cage during a hearing at a court in Moscow. A Russian court on December 3 ruled against releasing radical artist Pyotr Pavlensky from prison as he awaits trial over the torching of the doors of FSB security service headquarters. AFP PHOTO / DMITRY SEREBRYAKOV.

MOSCOW (AFP).- The organisers of Russia's top state art prize on Tuesday rejected the nomination of artist Pyotr Pavlensky for his performance setting fire to the headquarters of the Russian security service. Pavlensky has been held behind bars since November when he set fire to the wooden door of Moscow's notorious Lubyanka headquarters of the FSB security service in a performance protesting against the powers of the secret police. The state-owned National Centre for Contemporary Arts which organises the annual Innovation prize said Tuesday it had rejected the nomination of Pavlensky's "Threat" performance in the visual art category. The general director of the arts centre, Mikhail Mindlin said in a statement that Pavlensky's performance was dropped because its creation involved "breaches of the law and caused material damage." He said that nominating a work whose making involved breaking the law "to a competition which is held by a state organisation and under the aegis and with the support of the culture ministry seems impermissible to us."

Art critic Anna Tolstova, who is a member of the prize's advisory board, told The Art Newspaper Russia that she nominated the performance with Pavlensky's consent and it had got the most votes from the experts. The decision sparked a walk-out by three members of the advisory board, including Tolstova and Dmitry Ozerkov the head of the contemporary art section of the world-renowned Hermitage museum, the state art centre said. Ultimately the organisers decided to drop the visual art category altogether. Pavlensky's partner Oksana Shalygina wrote on Facebook: "Pavlensky has triumphed and forced the state machine to creak and collapse. The only way is ahead!" Pavlensky is currently incarcerated in a Moscow psychiatric hospital, ostensibly to assess his mental capacity. He has been detained in custody until March 6. The 31-year-old artist whose previous radical performances have included nailing his scrotum to Red Square has been charged with vandalism over the performance and faces up to three years in prison. The Innovation art prize has previously been known for its support for risky protest art. In 2011, it awarded the 400,000-ruble (then $14,000) prize went to street art group Voina, or War, for painting a phallus on a drawbridge opposite the headquarters of the FSB security service in Saint Petersburg. The culture ministry at the time condemned the work titled "A cock captured by the FSB" as "disgusting" but said it would not interfere with the jury's decision.

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The Art Loss Register locates two paintings stolen in a house burglary in Amsterdam in 2010

Still Life with Roses by Akkeringa Johannes Evert Hendrik, with an estimate of £2,700-4,000.

LONDON.- Following the Art Loss Register’s location of two paintings stolen in a house burglary in Amsterdam in March 2010, the works have been successfully recovered for the benefit of the insurer. The two paintings are Three Children and a Dog by Johannes Zoetelief Tromp, with an auction estimate of £14,000-20,000 and Still Life with Roses (illustrated) by Akkeringa Johannes Evert Hendrik, with an estimate of £2,700-4,000. In February 2014, the Art Loss Register spotted them in the catalogue of a Swiss auction house. They are one of 95 auction houses that subscribe to the Art Loss Register’s routine catalogue searching service. The auction house stated that, ‘It is precisely for this reason that we subscribe to the Art Loss Register, so that we can detect claimed items as soon as possible and avoid running the risk of selling stolen art.’

The matches were verified with the Interpol database. The Art Loss Register immediately alerted the auction house, which promptly withdrew the paintings from sale. The Art Loss Register also informed the Dutch police and a police investigation began with the Dutch and Swiss law enforcement authorities co-operating internationally. In February 2016, the paintings could finally be returned to the insurer who had paid out on the claim. With stolen art frequently crossing borders to avoid detection, this illustrates the importance of the Art Loss Register’s work internationally with police forces, insurers and auction houses to counter any attempts to sell stolen art.

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Bangladesh show COVERS UP Tibetan art after Chinese embassy in Dhaka complains

Exhibits belonging to filmmakers Ritu Sarin of India and her husband Tenzing Sonam are covered at a prestigious art show in Dhaka on February 8, 2016. A prestigious art show in Bangladesh has covered up Tibetan exhibits after pressure from the Chinese embassy in Dhaka which was "offended" after the envoy visited the exhibition, an official and an artist said February 8. AFP Photo/ Munir uz ZAMAN

DHAKA (AFP).- One of Bangladesh's biggest art shows has covered up an exhibit by Tibetan artists after the Chinese embassy in Dhaka said it was "offended" by the artwork, an organiser said Monday. A photographic exhibit entitled "Last Words", featuring the letters of five Tibetans who self-immolated in protest at Chinese rule, was covered with white sheets at the Dhaka Art Summit, an AFP correspondent said. The work belonged to Indian filmmaker Ritu Sarin and her husband Tenzing Sonam, a Tibetan living in exile, and were part of a larger multimedia installation on Tibetan self-immolations in the past six years. "The Chinese ambassador was offended when he saw the artworks. He sent us a mail in protest and asked us to remove the works. And we've covered up the five works with white sheets," Sazzad Hossain, head of administration at the Dhaka Art Summit, told AFP. Bangladesh is a staunch ally of China, which has bankrolled many of the impoverished nation's key infrastructure projects. "It was intimidating. I, personally, have started to feel threatened since then," another organiser of the show said on condition of anonymity.

Filmmaker Sarin told AFP that the artists had agreed to have the exhibit covered up rather than removed altogether. "Naturally, we were upset and outraged by the Chinese demand," she said. "At the same time, we did not want the Dhaka Art Summit to face the possibility of being shut down as we felt that the event provided an important platform for artistic exchange in South Asia." The Chinese embassy has yet to comment on the issue. In 2009, Bangladeshi police also closed a photography exhibition on Tibet following complaints from Chinese diplomats. Held at a state-run art gallery the Dhaka Art Summit is one of the most prestigious art shows in Bangladesh with about 300 South Asian artists participating.

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'Red flags were flying’ around Knoedler fakes, experts testify

Seven of 11 specialists named by the gallery say they never authenticated work that turned out to be a forgery

The Long Island dealer Glafira Rosales brought some 40 paintings to Knoedler below market price, including a work purportedly by Rothko that turned out to be a fake. PHOTO: ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

Dealers “run like hell” when someone offers them an unknown stash of works below market price, said Martha Parrish, a dealer in Palm Beach and New York who helped draft the ADAA code of ethics, during her testimony in the Knoedler fakes trial on Wednesday. The Long Island dealer Glafira Rosales brought some 40 paintings to Knoedler below market price, their provenance was unknown, they were undocumented, and they had never been seen before. Given those circumstances, Parrish said, “a reputable and responsible dealer would run like hell because there are too many red flags flying for anyone to take the risk”.

In the lawsuit, the collectors Domenico and Eleanore De Sole say that Knoedler obtained works that turned out to be forgeries at prices far below what they would have commanded if they were authentic. For example, Knoedler paid the Long Island dealer Glafira Rosales, who brought the cache of fakes to the gallery, $950,000 for a work purportedly by Mark Rothko and then sold it to the De Soles for $8.4m, a markup of 773%. Parrish said a dealer would expect to make a profit of 20% to 30%. Knoedler hired the former National Gallery of Art curator E.A. Carmean to research the provenance of the works brought by Rosales. When Nathan Holcomb, the lawyer for Knoedler’s former director Ann Freedman, asked Parrish whether a dealer would be entitled to a higher markup when extra research was performed, she seemed flabbergasted: “No. Absolutely not. No. It’s a work of art that’s worth ‘X’. It’s not worth more because you’ve done more work.” Jack Flam, the head of the Dedalus Foundation, which maintains the Robert Motherwell catalogue raisonné, also testified on Wednesday that he told Freedman repeatedly that four works she handled that were supposedly by the artist were fake.

Despite increasing evidence the works were counterfeit, including a forensic report Knoedler commissioned, Freedman pushed back, saying the provenance was “impeccable”, Flam testified. The collection’s backstory later proved to be a fabrication. “There were lots of moving parts to this story,” he added. According to Flam, Freedman said the works were part of a collection acquired for someone in Mexico with the help of the art dealer David Herbert. At one point she told him Herbert and the collector were lovers, at another time acquaintances. She said Motherwell had taken a trip to Mexico as the collector’s guest, but Flam testified that the artist never travelled to the country during that time. After studying images of the Motherwells in December 2007, Flam said he became suspicious. In December 2007, he told Freedman the signatures had an “exaggerated consistency”, and Motherwell had never titled a painting “Spanish Elegy”, yet that was inscribed on the back of one work.

In early 2008, Flam testified, after examining two works (one of them bought from Rosales by Freedman and her husband for $15,000) at the conservator Dana Cranmer’s studio, he told Freedman he was “even more convinced” they were not authentic: the support was warped but the paint film was pristine; the whites, which were supposed to be 50 years old, hadn’t yellowed. Freedman responded by reiterating the Herbert story, he said. Knoedler agreed to submit the two paintings to Orion Analytical for forensic testing. The company’s report indicated the works contained paint not available until well after the works’ supposed creation and that the surface had been sanded down with an electric sander, which Motherwell didn’t use. Freedman did not budge, Flam said. Flam was one of 11 experts that Knoedler said had “viewed” the painting, according to court documents. Flam said he not only did not recall seeing the painting, but he did not have “special expertise” in Rothko’s work. “If someone’s going to list you as an expert they should ask if you are one”, especially if they are “implying you’ve authenticated a work of art”, he said. So far, seven of the 11 people listed have testified that they did not authenticate the work sold to the De Soles.

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Roman fresco hidden beneath the streets of London uncovered by archaeologists

One of sixteen sections of a decorative fresco, dating to the earliest decades of Roman Britain in the 1st century AD © MOLA.

LONDON.- An ornate fresco that once adorned the residence of a wealthy Roman citizen has been discovered by archaeologists at 21 Lime Street, in London. Archaeologists from MOLA uncovered the fresco six metres below street level, whilst undertaking fieldwork for a new office development. Dating to the late 1st century AD, and the first decades of London, it is one of the earliest surviving frescos from Roman Britain. Thanks to a huge Roman construction project, the fate of this rare wall painting was literally sealed in the ground. In AD 100, construction of the 2nd Forum Basilica, the main civic centre for the city and the largest Roman building ever built north of the Alps, began. In advance of construction of the Forum the area was flattened. The painted wall was deliberately toppled and the Forum immediately built over it, incredibly preserving the fresco for nearly 2000 years. Discovered face down, the fresco was identified from the distinctive markings of the keyed daub onto which the plaster was attached. The fragile remains, surviving to a width of nearly 2.5 metres and a height of over 1.5 metres, were carefully removed from the site by MOLA’s archaeological conservators who lifted the fresco in 16 sections. Each section was supported, undercut and block lifted so that soil encased and protected the plaster. Back in the lab the conservators worked quickly to microexcavate the soil whilst it was still damp, to expose the millimetre-thin painted surface beneath. Liz Goodman, Archaeological Conservator for MOLA, said: “This was a really challenging but rewarding conservation project. We were up against the clock working on this huge and fragile fresco but it was a joy to uncover the decorative plaster that hadn’t been seen for nearly 2000 years.” For experts the elaborate fresco reveals something of the fashions and styles of the first wealthy Londoners. The painting is likely to have decorated a reception room where guests were greeted and entertained.

Ian Betts, Building Materials Specialist for MOLA, said: “The discovery of a Roman fresco at 21 Lime Street is a great opportunity for archaeologists to visualise how the homes of some of London’s first wealthy citizens were styled.” The central section, on a background of green and black vertical panels, depicts deer nibbling trees, alongside birds, fruit and a vine woven around a candelabrum. Red panels, bordered with cream lines, surround the main decorative scheme. The fresco was hand-painted by a skilled artist in natural earth pigments, except one area of red on the twisting vine stem which is picked out in cinnabar, an expensive mercuric sulphide pigment that had to be mined in Spain. Fascinatingly, a slight error in the design reveals that the craftsman who painted the fresco made a mistake. It suggests that there was more than one person painting the wall and that they may have been working to a pre-prepared template. The mistake could only have been corrected by repainting the whole middle panel. Although small fragments of Roman wall plaster have been found in London, complete collapsed wall paintings are extremely rare and the 21 Lime Street example is one of the earliest known from Britain. This design scheme has not previously been seen in Roman Britain; the closest example comes from a Roman villa in Cologne, Germany. Claire Cogar, Archaeology Project Manager for MOLA, said: “A very old construction project (circa AD 100) sealed this exceptional fresco in the ground, and it is thanks to modern development that our archaeologists had the opportunity to explore our buried past.” Specialists at MOLA are still studying the fresco and archaeological records from the dig to build a picture of what the area looked like in the Roman period and how it developed over almost 2,000 years of London’s history.

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'Picasso' painting seized in Turkey dismissed as fake; Original is in the hands of MoMA

Turkish police from the Istanbul Police Department Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Unit, hold-up a painting thought to be by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso titled, "Woman Dressing Her Hair", on January 30, 2016, in Istanbul (AFP Photo)

PARIS (AFP).- A painting seized by Turkish authorities that was reported to be a stolen Picasso is a fake, the Picasso Administration, charged with managing the artist's estate, said on Monday. The organisation said the canvas is a copy of a 1940 work by the great Spanish artist, "Woman Dressing Her Hair" -- and the original is in the hands of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). MoMA confirmed to AFP that the original, a portrait of Pablo Picasso's lover and muse Dora Maar, was part of its collection. The painting seized in Turkey is most certainly "a copy", the Paris-based Picasso Administration said.

Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency had reported Saturday that police had recovered the original "Woman Dressing Her Hair" and that it had been stolen from a collector in New York. It was seized in an undercover operation in Istanbul targeting alleged art thieves who were attempting to sell it for $7 million. Turkish police, posing as potential buyers, met the prospective sellers at a hotel and then at a yacht in an Istanbul marina, the report said. Dora Maar, Picasso's longtime muse, is depicted in the painting in grotesque fashion, with a sunken ribcage, swollen stomach and enormous feet.

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Japan vagina kayak artist Megumi Igarashi defiant as prosecutors seek fine

Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi smiles as she answers questions during a press conference following her final hearing before the verdict in Tokyo on February 1, 2016. AFP PHOTO / Toru YAMANAKA.

TOKYO (AFP).- A Japanese artist charged with obscenity for distributing a design for a kayak shaped like her vagina scoffed Monday at a demand by prosecutors to punish her with a $6,600 fine and vowed to appeal if found guilty. Megumi Igarashi's case has drawn widespread attention and sparked accusations of heavy-handed censorship in a country known for its multi-billion-dollar pornography industry but where actual depictions of genitalia are banned. Igarashi was arrested in July 2014 for trying to raise funds online to pay for the construction of the kayak by disseminating a coded 3D image of her genitals. The artist, who calls herself Rokude Nashiko -- slang that loosely translates as "reprobate child" -- was released days later following a legal appeal and after thousands of people signed a petition demanding her freedom. But several months later, Tokyo police arrested her again on three counts of distributing "obscene" data -- namely CD-ROMs containing computer code for a 3D printer that would allow users to make copies of the vagina-shaped kayak. She was held in custody for around a month before being granted bail.

Japan has a prolific pornography industry that caters to all imaginable tastes. But tough obscenity laws ban the showing of actual genitalia, which normally appear pixellated or blacked out. Prosecutors on Monday demanded that she be fined 800,000 yen (about $6,600) at a hearing at Tokyo District Court. A defiant Igarashi, however, said that she was resigned to the fact that prosecutors will probably appeal the case if she is found not guilty in May when the verdict will be handed down. "And if I am found guilty, I will of course continue fighting," she told reporters after the court session. "This battle is expected to be a long one." Takashi Yamaguchi, one of Igarashi's lawyers, said that the prosecution was intent on making an example of Igarashi ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. "I believe the Olympics is definitely one of the factors" behind the decision to seek such a hefty fine, he added.

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